https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSw17-f1YFU

Has anyone seen this? It's a promo for James character when first came on the scene. James talks a little about the character.

I love how he says viewers will love to hate him. Nah, I just love to love him.

Yeah, I saw it yesterday..and I had the same exact thought as you.... "no dear, I just love him fullstop!!"

why cant we have more scenes like this 14.18 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MViDl23hqa0

Yeah, James needs to interact more with his family. The others are often together, even Marnie (who is given way too much screen time, imo), while James is always missing.

I always think thats odd, though assume hes the one character who has a job

Morning!

Well I binge-watched all the James and JP clips last night

I love James. I love him. I love the way he speaks. He is so condescending and so confident. I especially loved the text that he sent to JP...'Bad JP is so much sexier than good JP'.

I watched most of the Scott parts through my fingers. He is so cringe worthy. I get that he is a 'comedy' character but why have they made him so embarrassing? Are there really people out there like that?

Oh, and is the guy who plays James gay in real life?

I started feeling bad about the strength of my reaction against him tbh. They went way over the score!

I'm making my way through the JP/Craig stuff and...wow Craig seems really straight! Like totally straight. I know an affair will happen and I'm fascinated to see how it will develop.

The build up has been sublime tho. I love how they slowly revealed John Paul's feelings over time and I'm not even at the stage that it's been verbalised yet. I'm loving every second of this!

I must admit, I wish Hollyoaks would do storytelling like this now. What's the rush all the time?

James Sutton says he is fed up of people asking if he is gay in real life. I hate knowing anything about any of the actors 'in real life' because it takes it away from the characters they are portraying.

What I love about James is the lift of the eyebrows and his sexy voice. I also hate commentating on appearances but Scott revolts me. I cannot understand why anyone would put on false tan deliberately when he knows everyone is laughing at him and not with him. I hate the sight of him.

I read somewhere that there is a gif of James and JP arguing in the McQueen home. I haven't caught sight of it or any spoilers about them. I would love JP to take on Marnie as that is what I loved about JP in his first stint. There was a strength about him that made you root for him.

There seems to be nothing about Greg's private life online, which I'm happy about because I agree that knowing too much can detract from the characters sometimes.

I'm glad to hear that

Does anyone know how far in advance they film?

That storyline (like many others in those years) was deliciously slow-burn and very cleverly developed. I miss those times.

I'm afraid that JP will get his sight back in a month, that he and James will get together in a couple of months, while sleeping with other people at the same time, then one of them will propose after having been a couple for 3 weeks, then they will or they won't get married, and after a 4-months relationship one of them will cheat and it will be it for this storyline.
This is the HO we have now...

Brutal, but probably accurate.

Stendan wasn't too long ago and they managed a decent slow burn with that storyline too, so I'll cling to hope for as long as I can.

Also, are John Paul and Ste even divorced yet?

Not that I know of!!

I wonder what JP is waiting for... divorce that loser already, certainly he can't still be carrying a torch for him now that he has set his sight ( too soon?? ) on James!

The best is yet to come!!

I love McDean. I only discovered it in July and watched the whole thing in 2 days

You're right...everything is so rushed these days. People are into immediate gratification. The slow burn is so much better....all that anticipation. The will they / won't they.


It isn't really that I want to know too much about the actors really. I just wish that occasionally they would have gay actors playing the gay roles instead of straight actors who (sometimes) look uncomfortable with the kissing.

Ooh, interesting about the spoiler. Thanks for that. Not sure about how to reply in the spoiler thingy.

What do you think HO will do to get James and JP back on track? In other words, what is James going to have to do to make up for what he did?

Lol! So true...

I certainly hope that this is not what you are predicting for Robron as well

I think it is very possible that they have learnt a lesson at HO. BK saying the v viewers had a allow attention span meant silly stories and murders galore. That scene in the hospital was beautiful and very moving. They gave the actor all the time he needed to give a full performance.
I hope the new titles and cast will allow them to explore characters and not just run through plots at a rate of knots.

We saw a heard a hint given about Nancy when she said her leg froze. She may be diagnosed with something like MS. The anorexia story was one of the best.

No way will James propose. He has to get over his terror of relationships first. Then he has to free himself from Marnie. She did something to end his relationship with Carter. I think James will discover that he never failed it was always his mm manipulating situations because she is frightened of being alone.

Unfortunately I can see this happening. Though Kirkwood has no bother stringing out serial killer plots for up to a year What ever happened to character-driven stories? 🙄

Interesting about the latest spoiler. I haven't seen that gif but I assume John Paul is fuming because of James's involvement with potentially splitting Mercedes from Joe? I don't like that JP may get his sight back so soon. I can deal with that I suppose. I just don't want a rushed story. McDean and Stendan were paced right but everything since from JP/Doug, JP/Ste to even Ste/Harry has not measured up. Yeah actors chemistry does count but you do need to allow the viewers to actually give a dam.

I reckon it'll be that Marnie deliberately sabotages James' relationships once they hit a certain level of seriousness. It'll probably be that she does it with a suitably Hollyoaks-esque level of ridiculousness!

I can see that happening. I mean she does it with all her children. She slept with Freddie just to get between him and Ellie and she gave jade a hard time for wanting to go on a trip with Alfie. Then there was Rachel who she outed for knowing about Alfie's cancer, aware that it would cause problems with Natyan. She does like to control her children and have them see her as no1 in thier life. However with James it's a whole different kettle of fish. They've only really got each other and she's manipulated him into believing she is all he needs. Therefore for him to even think about entering into something meaningful is going to knock her for six. I can imagine she is going to do everything she can to sabotage his relationship with John Paul.

I enjoy Marnie a lot and am looking forward to seeing her in scenes with John Paul (fingers crossed), but I hope they slightly tone down her pantomime villian vibe a bit.

Marnie is one of those characters you love to hate. She's so dramatic, very panto.

I hope Ellie's upcoming story gives James and chance to have some scenes with his family.

It's very rude to make me obsessed with McKnight and then immediately pull them away from my screen. Bad HO, bad.

Sigh. Are there any spoilers around??

Just read someones post on tumblr where they say JP discovers a secret from James' past in the autumn. I wonder if James was the son of some other man. Marnie mentioned she and James were not part of Mac's gang. Why would he cut James out?

This did make me think but I really hope the secret it bigger and better than another 'you're not my daddy story'. James and Gregory can do much better.

One thing got me thinking though...

I was looking at all the nightingale promos on YouTube and saw the one from Nathan. The actor mentions he is going to uncover a huge family secret soon. Could this be related to James's big secret? Because I can't think of anything since thier arrival that he has uncovered.

Yeah I hope the secret is something a bit more out there!